Well dressed beggars??

Larianne

Last week, I spotted a guy begging outside Donnybrook Fair looking very much not homeless. He was well dressed, and clean shaven and had a box out looking for money while sitting on the ground.

Then today, walking along Nassau street, I noticed a beggar and this young man also well dressed, begging for money.

By well dressed I mean clean runners, clean tracksuit bottoms, hoodie and jacket. Both men were in their late teens or earlier 20's.

Don't really know what the point of this thread is? Just wondering if others had noticed it? Are young men out begging not because they're homeless but because they don't have a job?

tony 2 tone

I'm sure there are groups out there such as Focus or Simon community that would give them new/clean clothes.

Larianne

But these are proper addidas and nike trainers, clean, trendy tracksuit bottoms and a smart jacket with a hoodie. They just didn't look homeless or down and out.

tony 2 tone

Oh I know, just had a lad tap me for change with a new looking Super Dry jacket during the week.
Maybe there is a different class of begger out in Donnybrook?

athtrasna

Not all beggars are homeless or down and out. It can be quite lucrative especially around Christmas & St. Patrick's day if newspaper reports are to be believed.

OneIdea

Begging is an occupation... ask them next time for change off a 50, I bet they'll have it, if there pro's.

Mick Murdock

I think the majority are professional beggars!

tempura

Larianne wrote: »

But these are proper addidas and nike trainers, clean, trendy tracksuit bottoms and a smart jacket with a hoodie. They just didn't look homeless or down and out.

I have never seen the the words, trendy, tracksuit, hoodie and smart in the same sentence before.

sticksman

There's a chap outside Fallon and Byrne every day and he seems to know a lot of people and is often chatting. I do wonder is he really that 'poor' at all. Very well spoken too.

The Scientician

sticksman wrote: »

There's a chap outside Fallon and Byrne every day and he seems to know a lot of people and is often chatting. I do wonder is he really that 'poor' at all. Very well spoken too.

There's a lad who hangs around there, Sth. William St. and Dame Lane area who is sound as a pound and for good or ill seems to treat begging as his job. He's always courteous, unassuming, unaggressive and knows when to leave people alone. Friend of mine sorta knows him and got his story. He isn't an addict nor alcoholic, nor I think is he actually homeless. Without knowing his whole story there isn't apparently anything that would preclude him getting a "real" job but maybe begging the way he does it pays more than any job he could get. I do often think if I were in the position to offer him a job I would.

baldbear

sticksman wrote: »

There's a chap outside Fallon and Byrne every day and he seems to know a lot of people and is often chatting. I do wonder is he really that 'poor' at all. Very well spoken too.

friendly very well spoken people can fall on hard times like the rest of the country.

babaracus

The Scientician wrote: »

There's a lad who hangs around there, Sth. William St. and Dame Lane area who is sound as a pound and for good or ill seems to treat begging as his job. He's always courteous, unassuming, unaggressive and knows when to leave people alone. Friend of mine sorta knows him and got his story. He isn't an addict nor alcoholic, nor I think is he actually homeless. Without knowing his whole story there isn't apparently anything that would preclude him getting a "real" job but maybe begging the way he does it pays more than any job he could get. I do often think if I were in the position to offer him a job I would.

He gets €188 quid off the State, rent supplement and a free medical card off the State (i.e. the rest of us) already.

If everybody on the dole was begging on the streets you wouldn't be able to move for beggars.

I cannot understand why anybody gives money to beggars on the street. The old myth about homeless people not getting the dole is just that, a myth. There are special arrangements for homeless people to get welfare payments.
Stop giving them money!

Larianne

tempura wrote: »

I have never seen the the words, trendy, tracksuit, hoodie and smart in the same sentence before.

Ain't down with the cool, abercrombie and fitch, superdry lovin' kids so!

Greenmachine

babaracus wrote: »

He gets €188 quid off the State, rent supplement and a free medical card off the State (i.e. the rest of us) already.

If everybody on the dole was begging on the streets you wouldn't be able to move for beggars.

I cannot understand why anybody gives money to beggars on the street. The old myth about homeless people not getting the dole is just that, a myth. There are special arrangements for homeless people to get welfare payments.
Stop giving them money!

Truth in the statement right there. Remember seeing noticing in the welfare office on pearse street. While I am sure not everyone who is homeless is claiming what ever benefits they might be entitled to, for some it is a total lifestyle thing. One colourful characater used to come into a fast food place I worked in around 1998. He locked genuinely homeless would be looking to cash his changed for bills.

If we needed the change I would take his 50p and £1 coins and he would leave with between £50-£100+ in notes. Anyone who has worked in retail will tell you there are days when all you get is change and others when people just seem to be handing in big bills. This guy would throw a strop whenever I would tell him we did not need any change today. He would be back a few days later and if we needed the change I would take it. No idea what he done with any of the smaller coins. Needless to say he earned more in a day than I did. No idea if he had a drug habit etc, but he looked genuinely down and out.

So when I see people asking for €1.20 for bus fare and they have asked me the same question everyday that week, who are dressed from me, I feel sad for this country.,

lincoln

I am sick and tired of these damn gilded scroungers out there on the street, in their runners and their tracksuits and their hoodies, with their hands out looking for free money off hard-working men like me.

I tell you, the bile rises in my throat when I see the ones that don't even have the wit to look like they're homeless. Shining, gleaming beggars who don't seem to realise that homelessness is a choice, and once you've made it a certain personal presentation is expected.

I work, I'm a working man, I earn my money, I work for it, ho-ho up by my own bootstraps kind of guy me--and in my job, my profession, my manager expects me to be turned out right.

I expect the same from these lecherous street swine, and god strike them down if, by dint of circumstance, they find themselves out on their own and, among the trauma of that, have the gall to attempt to retain some personal sense of dignity.

This forum is no place for conjecture, but I agree 100 per cent with the rest of the unsubstantiated ordure splattered across this cavalcade of spleen: these swindlers in their sharp threads are frauds, cheats, trying to screw us, the hard workers, out of our well-earned and deserved quids.

They're all on the dole too, you're right--but furthermore most of them are, as some you have suggested, part of a professional begging syndicate. I don't know this, but I have a hunch, and, hell, around here it seems a hunch is as good as a fact.

Esel

^ Do you issue a newsletter?

Esoteric_

I've seen plenty of well dressed beggars in town recently. A well spoken man in a suit asked me for money the other day, but also happened to have an aerosol container sticking out of his pocket. :pac:

The only thing that goes through my head when I see these people begging is 'Ffs, your runners cost more than my entire outfit and you're asking ME for money?'

Ravelleman

I'm not a fan of personal charity.

I always find it amusing to see scrounger hanging around at the Luas stop at St Stephen's Green. So many of them do actually wear Nike tracksuits and Celtic jerseys, it's not an unfair or exaggerated observation. When I compare myself to them I'm always struck by how their clothes often cost more than mine.

Similarly, there's a chap that stands on the strip of St. Stephen's Green between Grafton St. and Dawson St. every lunch time asking for cigarettes. He was wearing spotless Timberland boots last time I saw him. I was wearing a pair of Vans that I bought on sale for €20. And I don't smoke.

I wonder how much of this comes down to priorities. Perhaps we can blame the wicked society that we live in - a society that leaves these people behind socially while at the same time violently creating a desire in them for luxury goods.

But that's probably going too far. Yeah, probably.

digzy

sticksman wrote: »

There's a chap outside Fallon and Byrne every day and he seems to know a lot of people and is often chatting. I do wonder is he really that 'poor' at all. Very well spoken too.

Yeah, cos all poor people in Dublin sound like 'ah jayyyzuz howya buuud' and all the well spoken lads are loaded:rolleyes:

Do yourself a favour, go out, live a little and remove the blinkers with 'stereotype' on 'em:D

sticksman

digzy wrote: »

Yeah, cos all poor people in Dublin sound like 'ah jayyyzuz howya buuud' and all the well spoken lads are loaded:rolleyes:

Do yourself a favour, go out, live a little and remove the blinkers with 'stereotype' on 'em:D

The implication was that he seems to be popular with passing folk, is probably well educated and could probably be doing better for himself, but is using begging as a profession rather than getting off his backside.

Love your smarmy know it all attitude by the way,

digzy

sticksman wrote: »

The implication was that he seems to be popular with passing folk, is probably well educated and could probably be doing better for himself, but is using begging as a profession rather than getting off his backside.
,

Because he's 'well spoken' he's 'probably well educated'?
Will ya cop yourself on and stop digging. A stupid stereotype and you know it.

Perhaps you ought ask him next time:
' Excuse me good sir, but you are so well spoken that i've concluded that you're probably well educated. Therefore, J'accuse you of being an imposter!!! So sir what say you to that?'

Of course all well educated fellas never fall on hard times. Facepalm!!!!!

Why not google a lad called 'john bent ' and drugs . Very intelligent fella, studying maths in Trinity around 1998-2000. See what happened him after that!

Pepe LeFrits

Larianne wrote: »

Last week, I spotted a guy begging outside Donnybrook Fair looking very much not homeless. He was well dressed, and clean shaven and had a box out looking for money while sitting on the ground.

Dude, somebody had just stolen my guitar. I was inconsolable.

Thanks for the compliment tho. I got the jacket in Topman.

penana

"Whatsoever you do to the least of My people that you do unto Me"

Esel

penana wrote: »

"Whatsoever you do to the least of My people that you do unto Me"

Bit of a problem with your SHIFT key when you press 'm'? That or a goD complex....

Yakuza

It's a quote (presumably from the Bible), hence the quotation marks.

SHOVELLER

Do not give beggars money. Then they will go away. Hopefully forever.

As mentioned we already fund them with their dole, free medical card and free travel not to mention subsidised accommodation.

What a country!

Jocelynel

christmas eve morning last, on kildare street a 2011 black merc drove up beside where we were walking (we were going to stephens green for breakfast). well, this woman gets out with her little boy, looked about two dressed in pretty much rags. they proceeded to walk up to stephens green and plonked themselves down with a box and a begging note. i remember a documentary on tv a few years back, beggers can make €200+ per day

timmywex

Theres a particular ginger haired guy around the city centre that always seems to be short 2 euro for a bus to Carlow

Quite well dressed and just constantly goes up to people, id say it works out pretty well for him!

monkeypants

timmywex wrote: »

Theres a particular ginger haired guy around the city centre that always seems to be short 2 euro for a bus to Carlow

Never met the guy, but I'd offer to take him down to Busaras and put him on the bus personally.

Isn't begging illegal in this country?

Esel

monkeypants wrote: »

Isn't begging illegal in this country?

Not since a court case a few years ago. It is still illegal to beg in close proximity to cash machines, and to beg in an aggressive manner.